Siren of the Hooligans
by Kiss Queen Love Kiss
Summary: Siren, after a few years, lives at Dragon's Edge and teaches the children of the Meathead tribe in secret on an island not too far away. The adults aren't aware she's teaching their kids. One day, she meets a Meathead named Al. What happens now, since he's the first grown Meathead to find out about her activities?
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

 **It's been three years since I went to Japan, and since then, I've come back to visit. I've moved to Dragons' Edge, where my parents and their friends used to live before Dad became Chief of Berk.**

 **In the past three years, I've visited the Arabian Empire, went to Korea and China with a few merchants Ichigo knows, been captured by the Celts as a prisoner of war since some Viking tribes and the Celts are at war. I've also learned the Celts' language and customs. I escaped the Celts after six months. Two months later, I found a tribe that lives not too far away from Dragons' Edge on another island. They're called the Meatheads, and there are many children that live there.**

 **That got me thinking: Since usually what I can do involves riding Toothless, studying the Koreans' language, writing books, and raising my crops, I figured that I could use a change of pace.**

 **What better way to do so than by teaching the kids about dragons, farming, and the other cultures I've encountered? Especially those of the Celts.**

 **I've been doing this for about four months. Things have been going very smoothly.**

 **That is, until one of the Meatheads finds out what I've been doing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Siren**

I loosened Rupac's grip on my neck as I dismounted Toothless. I smoothed out the wrinkles in my kimono once my feet hit the ground and patted Toothless' nose. He purred happily in response.

Up above, the sky was nice and clear, and the sun shone brightly, but not too bright. That made it satisfactory enough to teach my students today in the Meathead arena.

"Come on, bud," I said, wrapping my arms around Toothless' neck. "We're going to walk to the arena."

* * *

I sat on my chair as Brunhild, who was often one of the first pupils to show up, took out her notes and set them on the table. More students began to arrive. I could recognize their faces and name them at once. They all wore kimonos with swords tied at the sash, since I made it clear that was their uniform. Since I visited Japan many, many times, Ichigo and Rukia gave me them in support of me teaching these kids. They also gave me some instruments from Japan. The merchants I'd traveled with on one visit gave me some Korean attire and books, along with Chinese clothes as well. I kept them all in a room at Dragon's Edge since there were so many of them. I usually wore them everyday, even when I wasn't teaching the kids. This was because I had no Viking clothes-I outgrew them.

Once all the students were seated, I began the morning's lesson. It was a gorgeous Thor's Day, and as always, we began with one hour of studying Viking history, followed by more one-hour blocks. Usually, after studying Viking history, we then went to dragons and how to classify them. I had the Book of Dragons and Fishlegs' cards to help them with their studies. After that, we studied Japanese, along with their etiquette and how to translate Japanese to Nordic and the other way around. Next, I taught them Celtic and the Celts' customs. Originally, this was going to be the Mayans', which I really wanted to do since I learned their language via Rupac, but since the Meatheads were one of the tribes at war with the Celts, I felt it only suitable that they learn my account of my time with them and the language so they could negotiate a treaty.

Of course, this being Vikings, we have stubbornness issues, so that treaty might not be happening any time soon.

After studying Celts, I gave the kids a lunch break. They already had four hours of learning, and they always became restless after the fourth hour. I made them lunch each day, whether it be rice, squash, fish, corn, you name it. For lunch today, they were going to have corn, rice, a side of yak, and cocoa with sugar mixed in it. I liked the taste of cocoa a lot better after I added the sugar extracted from the sugar canes of India. They were given to me by one of the Japanese merchants I traveled with.

After their one hour lunch break, it would be fencing, then dragon-riding, which the kids loved a lot. Next, we would do rock climbing, followed by lessons on how to craft a weapon. After that, it would be dinner. This time, the kids would make their own food, so then they could learn to take care of themselves when they married. Then it was time for them to go home and do their homework.

I kind of enjoyed teaching the kids, but it was a little frustrating when they didn't listen, which happened a lot. The youngest were around five or six years old, and the oldest were around twelve to thirteen, only a few years younger than me. As of right now, it was a month before my fifteenth birthday, while many of my pupils had their birthdays already.

Then again, when your birthday is a month before Snoggletog, everyone has birthdays before you.

* * *

It was after school, and I had just finished writing a Japanese exam the kids were going to take next week. Next week was exam week, and I wanted to see how much attention the kids were paying in class. On the last exam week, which was two months ago, the average was around 70%, which isn't half-bad, but I'd like to see better from the kids. I wanted to increase the average to 85%. Then again, maybe I was expecting way too much from the kids. I'd only been teaching them for four months.

Still, teachers want to see their students do well, otherwise there's no point.

I set Rupac a perch I created for him during classes.

"Do you think the adults suspect anything?" I said, speaking in Mayan.

"For the gazillionth time, girl, what do you expect?"

I sighed. I made the kids bring home two kimonos each home so if one got dirty, they could wear the other. I also told them to speak to each other in not just Nordic, but also Japanese and Celtic so they wouldn't forget what they learned. They had schoolbooks of their own to study from. "You have a point." I turned toward Toothless, who was sitting on his hind legs, looking at me patiently. I was so eager to ride him. I loved riding Toothless after school each day. It was nice to let go and ride him after a long day.

"I'll be back!" I called toward him as I walked to Toothless. He went to all fours and crouched low enough for me to climb onto him. I was just about to do so when I heard a voice call out.

"Hey!"

I was freaked out. That sounded like a Viking, and the voice did not belong to one of the kids I worked with. It was deep and masculine. I heard footsteps coming to me. They were fast and loud. Quietly, I turned around to be face to face with a Viking. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and some damn nice arms. He was wearing an axe at his waist, and a sleeveless brown shirt with furs at the shoulders. His pants were ripped, and he had knee length boots.

"I hear you teach the children in my dad's tribe," he said, panting. "I've seen the clothes you make them wear. At first, I wouldn't have believed them, but," he stopped to take a breath, then examined Toothless behind me and Rupac on his perch. "I've never seen such clothes before. One of them told me you said to change in the forest so the adults wouldn't see them leave with these 'kimonos' as they call them." He rubbed his hands on his pants, then looked back up at me. "You told them to take every precaution necessary to keep the older ones from finding out."

I let my breath go. I hadn't realized until then that I'd been holding it. "Yes," I said. "I was bored, and I wanted to teach them what I learned on my travels since I-"

I stopped. I didn't want to talk about it since I felt so guilty about my birthplace, and I didn't want him to find out who's daughter I am.

"You left Berk. I know. Your mother lived with us until your dad came saying you were missing." The Meathead's words surprised me. One of the kids I told must've told him.

"I didn't believe you were real at first, but I began to think so when I first saw Brunhild wearing a kimono. Then I found more of them in some of the other kids' closets. It was around then that I decided to meet you to see if you really did have a talking dragon." He looked at Rupac, who was snoring very loudly.

I could already tell what he was thinking. "Rupac doesn't like being awoken unless it's me waking him up. If he's just fallen asleep, it's best to wait a few hours before waking him up. That rule applies to even me."

"Okay," he said.

A long silence followed. The Meathead broke it.

"I'm supposed to tell my Dad if there are intruders on the island, but I don't want to tell him about you," the Meathead explained. "My dad's the chief here, and he wants to know every single thing here. If there's an intruder or an unknown person, then he would probably execute them because he's worried about corruption.

"However, I don't want to report you because I'm interested in you. Your kimono alone is proof that you've gone to other places, Siren. I've also heard you've been captured by the Celts as hostage for six months. Is that true?"

"Yes," I snapped. "And why did you call me Siren? I don't even know your name."

"It's Alastair. Call me Al." He held his hand out, and I shook it. I liked how rough it was. He must do a lot of hard work, I thought.

"I'd like to learn what you've taught these kids. I think it would be very useful for us Vikings, especially since we're at war. You know the Celts' language and customs, correct?"

"Yes," I said to Al.

"Good. You'll teach me on Saturdays, because that's when you're not teaching the kids. I'd like to have a different day for me."

I decided not to question that. I thought a change of pace for Saturdays could be good. I felt like I needed it.

"Alright, then. I won't make you wear the uniform."

"That's good. They don't look comfortable." Al wasn't entirely wrong about that.

"Meet me at noon here. I'll take you to Dragon's Edge."

"Deal."

* * *

"I think I did the right thing, bud," I said, as I looked down at the sea. Toothless and I were going for a midnight ride. The wind blew my knee length hair back as I looked up.

"I feel like I can trust Al," I said slowly. "He seems decent enough."

Toothless purred in agreement. I could imagine him smiling toothlessly.

"I know, bud. I wonder what he'll be like." I looked toward the horizon. The sun was slowly rising. I scratched Toothless' neck.

"Time to go, buddy."

Quickly, he turned around, and we went home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Siren**

The next day, I gave the kids time to study for their exams. I kept them posted on when the exams would take place. Their Japan and fencing tests were on Moon's day, the dragon classifying and dragon-riding tests on Tyr's day, followed by the Celtic and weapon crafting tests on Woden's Day. Finally, they would have the rock climbing and Viking tests on Thor's day. Frigg's day would be off for me to take a break from them and to give me more time to mark their tests, calculate the average, and plan what to teach them next. I could also get more time to ride Toothless and sell rice, along with working on my Korean. Rupac said I'm not too bad, but I should work on it more often. I told him I'd use my free time as often as possible.

As I sat there, watching the kids talk and study, my mind wandered back to Al. I wasn't sure if I should just teach him Celtic, Japanese, and Mayan, since he already knew Viking history, weapon crafting, dragon classifying, rock climbing, and fencing, and he didn't need to relearn all that, which would give me more time to teach him Mayan. I thought about teaching him to ride dragons, but then he may not be as liberal toward them as I was.

I decided to turn to Rupac for advice. Carefully, I took him off his perch, where he was snoring. He'd been doing so for the past three hours, and he wouldn't be upset if I woke him up now.

"Rupac," I said softly. He stirred, then his eyes popped open.

"What should I teach Al?" I asked, speaking as softly as possible in Mayan.

"My advice would be the Celts. I don't think he'd be interested in learning Japanese and Mayan. Besides, it's not going to matter to him since he ain't gonna go to Japan. At least I don't think he will," Rupac said, his softening and becoming louder every few seconds.

"He's going to be chief of the Meatheads. These kids won't, so that means they could be going to Japan or the Mayan Empire as merchants or teachers to the kids, and maybe if they capture Celts, knowing the language could help them interrogate the prisoners of war. Al himself will want to interrogate some Celts as well, so he should probably learn their language.

"If he's open minded enough, you could teach him dragon riding as well."

"I was thinking the same things you were," I told Rupac, before I turned my head to the kids, most of whom were just talking. I knew from the sun dial I placed not too far away from my chair, it was about five minutes into the fourth hour, so it was time to switch.

"Excuse me, Rupac," I said, speaking Nordic this time. I set him back on his perch and turned to the kids.

"Listen up!" I shouted in Celtic. "You have a test next week, and it's your job to study! If you fail, we redo everything we've learned the past two months! Do you want to do that?"

There was a stunned silence. I don't like being to hard, but I've learned that sometimes, you need to be cruel to be kind with children. Sometimes, it's the only way they learn.

Finally, one boy raised his hand. His name was Hod, and he was twelve. Let's say he wasn't the most mature student I've taught.

"What do we do after the tests? If we pass, that is."

"I'll bring my books about dragons, the Japanese and the Celts. They're written in both Nordic and the languages of their subjects. Some of you will be old enough to join the war against Celts soon, so you guys in particular will want to read my account of the Celts.

"The one about Celts is only for the older kids because there's some very uncomfortable stuff in there." That was probably a big understatement. My time with the Celts was probably the worst six months of my life. It was so bad I think I might go home soon. Probably around Snoggletog. I know Dad might disown me, but I feel I should see him again. I was already beginning to feel bad about leaving Berk behind two years ago, but then when I got captured by the Celts...

I really did want to see Mum and Dad again.

* * *

"Study hard!" I shouted to the kids as they left with their books, speaking the language I was most comfortable with...Nordic. It's my first language, and I was born a Viking. I will die a Viking.

"Come prepared!" I yelled, this time louder.

"We will, sensei!" Magnus called out. He was Brunhild's cousin. She was older than him by two years. His uncle was her dad. Many of these kids were related to each other. The Viking family tree is kind of screwed up in that way. Too much to keep track of.

Hearing the word sensei brought a smile to my face. I liked having respect from these kids, and being called sensei proved they had a lot of respect for me. I knew I'd taught them well if they called me that.

"Ready to go home, Toothless?" I said, patting my dragon's nose. It was soft and kind of scaly, but I liked its feel. So did Toothless.

My best friend purred in agreement. I went to the perch and took Rupac off and carefully wrapped him around my neck. He was asleep, as he usually was these days. Then I went back to Toothless and mounted him.

Quickly, we ascended to the sky, the one place I loved a lot.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hiccup**

Two months before Snoggletog. A month before her birthday.

Where was Siren? Where did she go?

Hiccup thought he might return to Berk for Snoggletog, but decided against it. He wasn't going home until his princess was found, dead or alive. Hiccup wanted her to be alive. He wanted his princess to be alive. His beloved Princess Siren.

He could remember when she was three years old. He called her Princess, because he was the chief and she was his daughter, maybe one day to take the duty of running Berk once her father was gone. He would've liked her to, because he felt that she was a smart, bright little maiden, and that she could be a great chieftess. Astrid thought he was crazy for calling her Princess, but he could hear her calling her that when his wife took their princess to sleep.

"I love you, Princess Siren," she whispered not so quietly. Astrid kissed her tiny little hands and tickled her belly. The sight of a mother with her daughter made his heart melt. Nothing could ever change a mother's love.

* * *

 **Siren**

"What was it like riding Toothless?" I asked Al. His hair was wild in places, and his eyes were wide enough to see the veins. He was panting hard.

"I'm gonna assume it was not fun." I pulled his hand and took him up the stairs to my study room.

We were at Dragon's Edge, and I took Al here via Toothless. I made Toothless fly as fast as possible so we could have more time to teach Al. Something told me this was Al's first time riding a dragon, and it was a slightly frightening experience. It was the same with me when I was small. I was so scared I was going to fall off, but Daddy held me tight. Mummy would give me a piggyback ride once I got off Toothless. All I remember about her piggyback rides was her bouncing me up and down.

"Sit," I commanded, as soon as we were inside the study room, which was full of books, each organized by the language it was written in. I didn't even understand some of the languages, but I still took them because I thought they could be somewhat useful. I noticed that in the Arabian Empire, they studied the human body and how to cure certain illnesses. I had decided that once I was done studying Korean, I would start studying Arabic to translate these books. They could save lives.

I also had books written in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, none of which I understood. I knew that sooner or later, I would have to learn them otherwise there was no point in having the books there.

"We'll start with the Celtic language and dragon riding," I explained, taking out my book about the time I spent with the Celts. Beside it was a book about the customs, and on the other side, a book about the Celtic gods. I had written both while I had been captured by the Celts. If there was one thing the Celts' customs had told me, it's that they were barbarians. One of the things I learned was that if a Celtic warrior learned that he was going to lose the battle, then what he was to do would be killing his family and himself. I don't understand the reason for this, but what I know is that it's very barbaric for a person to kill his own family.

I sat across from Al and started with the basics: Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, My name is, so on.

"They say 'bonjour' as a greeting?" Al asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oui," I said, not looking up from my Korean manuscript.

"Is that their way of saying 'yes'?"

"Yup." Al was a lot less frustrating than the students I taught. He actually paid attention, and he was more mature.

"Okay," he said. I could hear the sound of his pen scratching the paper he was writing on.

* * *

 **Alastair**

We continued on for about three hours. I was getting very weary of having to learn the Celtic language, but I reminded myself that it was for the better. I heard once that the more you understand your enemy, the more likely you are to prevent war. Try telling that to my pop, though.

Sire, as I called her, wanted to go outside and check her crops, so that left me to go through her study. Brunhild mentioned that she was bringing her books after exam week for the kids to study from. I was curious, so I figured, hey, why not read what she's going to make them read.

There was one book sitting right next to what Sire called a Korean manuscript. I couldn't understand the drawings on the manuscript, but I could read the writing on her book: _My Time with the Celts. By Siren Hofferson Haddock._ Below, there was the title written in the Celtic language.

I picked up the book and opened it to the first page. I began reading. Sire was captured by the Celts' last year. She'd been taking a bath in the river when a naked man covered in blue with many tattoos and a large horned helmet came. Heads hung around his waist, and he carried a large spear. Siren described him as being over six foot five and highly intimidating.

She was underwater at the time, so she didn't hear him coming until he pulled her out of the water. Sire was unconscious at the time. When she woke up, her legs and arms were chained, and she had bruises all over her body. She'd been kicked, beaten, and starved. There were many other girls who were way worse off than she was. The men would force these girls, most of whom were probably virgins, to give them pleasure and favours in return for food. Part of it involved giving up their virginity, even if they resisted.

Sire was not one of the girls who lost their virginity in such a manner. However, she does describe being beaten and starved for not obeying. It took Toothless some time to find her because he couldn't fly unless he had a rider since he lost one tail fin. When he did find her, he released her from her chains and she mounted him. She successfully escaped. Siren, at the time, was beaten within an inch of her life. When she first saw a bowl of rice, she describes wolfing it down in less than five minutes. Supposedly, she was still regaining her health as of right now.

That was a brief outline. It was only the stuff I read in Nordic that I knew. I didn't know anything else other than that.

Siren wrote about how she didn't really want to negotiate a treaty, but the text said that she thought it was the only way to keep the Celts off the Vikings' back. It might have been the only way to keep more Celts from torturing Vikings.

The stuff I read pissed me off. How could they treat her like that? It was going to leave scars for the rest of her life.

Come to think about it, when I first saw her in the arena, she looked pretty thin, even with all the layers of her kimono. Her spotted cheeks did have quite a bit of colour, though, so she was getting better, getting her strength back.

Still, I thought to myself, I should protect her. She's teaching me, so I should pay her back. I'll do that by making sure the Celts don't kidnap her again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Siren**

Tyr's day.

I hadn't even finished marking my second Japan test yet (though it was a very long test. Some of the students took as long as two hours and a half, just to give you an idea), and now there was already a bunch of dragon classifying tests. I wasn't worried about marking the dragon riding test since like the fencing test, I only needed to watch what they do and make notes about it.

Right now, it was the third hour, which was Japan. I'd brought my books with me, and I handed the test I marked.

That was Hildegard's. She did pretty well. She had a ninety-one percent on the test. That made me really proud of her. She'd come a long way since the last test, when she had sixty percent. I knew she'd been putting in some very hard work on studying for the test.

I felt very confident by next exam week, she'd be getting around 95%. I had goals for the kids to do their very best, and that would 100%. I knew they'd have their own ways of doing it, but whatever strategy they used to achieve 100%, I would support them.

"Alright," I said, setting my Japan book in front of me. I opened it up to the glossary page, where there were Japanese to Nordic and Nordic to Japanese translations. Over the weekend, while I finished marking Hildegard's testing, started marking Alf's, assessed how Al was doing in Celtic and dragon riding, studied Korean and did well enough to be able to hold a brief conversation in the language, rode Toothless, and took care of my crops, I came up with my pupils' next project. I decided to have them make a Japanese and Nordic translation guide, along with a pen pal project I wanted to start as soon as possible. I found out Ichigo was teaching a tutor in Japan Nordic, and the tutor was teaching more students. I'd only found out yesterday when Sharpshot, my Terrible Terror, had brought a message from Japan saying there are samurais' children in Japan learning Nordic. I decided in order to help them enhance their learning, along with my own students' learning, so they could understand the languages better. I also wanted to teach them about Taoism, Buddhism and Shintoism, religions in Japan.

"First,we're starting a new project," I announced. "It's due in two months. You are going to make a Japanese-Nordic translation guide for both Vikings and the Japanese. If your guides are good enough, then I can send them to Trader Johann or keep them as an example for the next set of students I teach." I eyed every single one of them. "Or, if some of you become teachers, I'll pass them down to you for your pupils. You may work on them in groups of two to six. I'll pick your groups."

I wanted to make their workload less, so I thought if they worked in groups, then they could meet the deadline sooner. I also felt that if I let them pick their own group mates, they may not work as efficiently because they would be with their friends.

"Second, we'll have pen pals from Japan if we can get the approval of our pen pals' teacher in Japan. I'll be deciding your pen pals if we get approval. I'm hoping for your pen pals to be the opposite gender." I noticed Hod raised his hand.

"Yes, Hod?"

"Will our female pen pals be hot?" he asked. The older kids giggled.

Like I said earlier, not very mature.

"Is that relevant?"

Hod sunk in his seat and turned red. He never learned his lesson about asking me dumb questions.

"Third," I continued on, as though nothing had happened. At this point, some kids began whispering, only to be silenced as soon as words exited my mouth. "We're onto a new topic in Japan: Religions. There are three religions in Japan: Taoism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. They are each unique in their own way.

"Any other questions?" Freya raised her hand. She was a red haired girl, with freckles across her cheeks and arms. She was muscular, and quite tall for a girl of thirteen years old, at five foot five.

Last year, when I was thirteen, I would have been shorter than she was, at five foot three. Now, I was five foot eleven. I had grown quite a bit in the past few years.

"How are we going to fit all our studies in one hour?" she asked.

"Good question," I said. "We'll divide our time into thirty minutes for now. If I get the pen pals project approved, then we'll divide our time into twenty minutes for each."

Magnus' hand was also up. "Will we get to meet our pen pals?"

I wasn't really thinking about that. "We'll have to see about it. Anything else?"

No. There was nothing.

"Alright. Time to start on religions in Japan. We have only thirty minutes."

That was true. Half an hour had already passed away. I wanted to use the remaining time efficiently. I felt teaching them about religion would be efficient enough. Besides, it was a good introduction to their new topic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Siren**

Just three minutes after I marked my fifteenth Japan test, my third Viking test, my twenty-seventh dragon classifying test, and my first Celtic test, I ran out into my rice field to check my crops. As always, they were growing well. I had more than enough rice to feed myself and the kids for about fifteen years, by my guess. I'm really not sure, but I do know it's a lot of rice. I had so much that one whole room at Dragon's Edge dedicated to rice storage. At this point, I was considering another room reserved for rice storage. I had one for me, Toothless, Rupac, and the Terrible Terrors Sneaky and Sharpshot, one for the library, and the rice storage. There was still more space left.

Next, I moved to my vegetable crop. I examined which ears of corn seemed to doing the best. I would take the grains and fertilize the best corn so then I could have good results. There was a little more than enough corn for everyone, but that was okay because of how sweet it was.

I did this with my squash and beans as well. I did have a lot of squash, but I didn't sell it because Toothless liked it way too much, and it meant extra food for the kids.

After I picked my rice, I put it into three bags. I would've been able to do more work if I wasn't riding Toothless so often, or teaching the kids. Or Al on Saturdays. I wasn't tutoring him today because it was Sun's day today, so I had this one day to myself, Toothless, and Rupac.

I went to my storage room and opened the door. The rice was stacked in rows against the wall; there were five rows going across. I could hear heavy breathing and a distinctive purr from behind me. I knew right away it was Toothless. As always, he'd help me carry the bags of rice to other islands just not far outside the archipelago. I got a lot of swords in return for the rice I sold. That's why I had many swords for the kids to practice fencing with. I had enough for about half of them to be able to learn fighting with two swords instead of one.

As soon as I finished packing up about five bags of rice, I boarded Toothless and got into the air. We flew as fast as possible, at a speed no one could hope to match. My long hair was tied up into a bun, since it normally was like that. I hardly even bothered combing it; it was knee length, and it would take over an hour. At this point, I knew it was time to cut it to a more manageable length.

I wouldn't really miss hair that length.

* * *

Toothless and I were high over an island. I was kneeling on top of Toothless, ready to jump off him. This was the islanders' cue to know I was up above so they wouldn't shoot us down, like the first time we met. I wouldn't want to repeat that.

I jumped off Toothless head first, and he dived down as soon as I was half way. Together, we fell down. I smiled at Toothless and he returned the smile me. When we were close to the rocks, I got back onto him...and spotted a ship not too far from the coast.

The ship was small, with a mast that wasn't too big, and sails that showed it to be a trading boat.

Was that Trader Johann? I knew if it was him, then I should've brought more rice. I owed him my life. He and Toothless saved me from the Celts when I was held hostage. I didn't know how to pay him for it.

I ordered Toothless to move toward the docks. As we neared it, the residents of the island came into view. I could recognize the chief of this tribe of Vikings: Oswald the Rich, one of the wealthiest men in the Confederation of Tribes. These guys were outside of the archipelago where I lived. We never really met until some months ago, when they tried to kill me and Toothless. Nasty business, that was.

"Siren!" Oswald called out, raising a large hand. He was a burly man, around six foot nine and 400 pounds. He had brown hair and dark eyes. Most folks in his tribe had a similar description. His beard was tied up to his chin, and his mustache practically covered his mouth. Oswald wore typical warrior gear: leather pants, and a large fur shirt with shoulder spikes.

Toothless landed on the docks carefully and folded his wings. I dismounted him when Oswald came up to me, each step making a loud thudding sound.

"We do not need any more rice, if you have come to sell some," he said, as I pulled the first bag off. "Our farmers are growing them, along with the farmers of many other Viking tribes on the mainland. We do appreciate your visits though," he quickly added.

"That's alright," I said, turning to face him as Trader Johann came off his boat, his beard greyer than ever. His son, Bric, came after him. Bric was to take over trading as soon as his father died. We all knew Trader Johann would be dead sooner or later, and so did he, which was why Bric came along.

Bric was the spitting image of his father, with similar clothes and a blacker beard. His eyes appeared younger and more cocky than his father's did.

"Trader Johann!" I cried, running to him. "Can I sell you some rice? I hope my debt to you for saving my life can be paid through that!"

"Siren, Siren, Siren," Trader Johann said, pausing to take a breath. "You owe me no debt for your life."

Even at his age, he was still pretty strong, which was impressive. Many men ten years younger than him wouldn't have his strength.

"But still," I said, holding up my bag of rice, "I can give this to you. Many tribes farther up on the mainland don't know how to farm rice. You can bring it to them for me. I can't travel that far north, since it's going to take me many, many days. Will you and Bric do that for me?"

Johann and Bric looked at each other, then me.

"A deal's a deal, daughter of Berk," Bric said, pulling the load away from me. Five minutes later, all my rice bags were onto Trader Johann and Bric's ship, and Toothless and I were air born again.

* * *

It was nighttime, and I was higher up in the air than before. I made Toothless do spinning and twirling, which was so thrilling and romantic. After the spinning, we would go for a slow ride. It was magical, with all the wind blowing and the stars around me.

This one night, however, was particularly magical.

When we were up in the sky, rainbows began to appear. They glowed beautifully and shimmered. I reached out my hand to feel them, and all I felt was cloud. I remember when I was a child, Gobber sat me on his lap and told me that rainbows were the bridges from Midgard to Asgard.

That was exactly what I was looking at now. I didn't know for sure if the rainbow would take me there, but all I know is one thing, and it's that it's the closest to Asgard I'll be before I die.

"Odin's beard, Toothless," I cried out loudly, "I wish I could see that everyday!"

Toothless purred knowingly, but there was something else, and it sounded like nostalgia. I think there was an old memory he was thinking about that involved Mummy and Daddy riding him together for the first time. I don't know specifically what happened from his perspective, but that's something I'll have to ask Daddy when I came home to Berk.

"Let's go down fast, Toothless!" I shouted as I flipped myself off of Toothless and flew down toward the sea. I heard him roar, then strong wind as he caught up with me. Quickly, I grabbed his reins and got back onto him. We made a safe landing on the wooden landing area.

As soon as we were down, I got off and wiped my forehead, taking a deep breath.

"That was a great ride, bud! Now let's get some sleep!"

We retired to our room for the night. I fell asleep the moment I hit the pillow and had a dreamless sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Siren**

"Quicker, Toothless!" I yelled, as Berk came into view, partially obscured by clouds. People were walking about, carrying on with their daily business as I came closer to the docks. I could see Eret, son of Eret, repairing a ship as Magnus, the ugly daughter Gobber named, stood over him. I never understood how her parents wanted to name her Hildegard. She looked more like a Magnus to me.

Try telling that to her parents.

Toothless landed with a _thud!_ on the docks. Vikings looked up, their eyes wide with curiosity and fury.

I dismounted my best friend and walked forward to Eret, who was holding his axe out self-defensively.

"We don't welcome dragons here," he growled, as more Vikings pulled out their maces and swords and axes.

"I know," I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. "I was born and bred upon this island. My parents are Hiccup, Dragon Conqueror and Chief of Berk, and Astrid Hofferson. I am Siren, the daughter of Berk. I left five years ago with Toothless, formerly my father's dragon, and now my own. I wish to stay home for the next two weeks."

As I spoke, I remembered what Rukia said when I told her of my plan to return home.

"Siren," she said, speaking in Nordic, which I usually didn't hear her speak unless she was with Rupac, working on it. "Your people not able to recognize you. Mother and father won't know you. Viking clothes no more fitting, so wear kimono. Berk don't know kimonos. Berk think of you as frail, small, not a tall, strong. Berk know Toothless, but still not believe you. Berk no know Quetzalcoatl. No talking dragons.

"Only way you learn is to go back, no? Not listen to me or husband."

We argued for a bit, but that didn't convince me. It didn't show me the reality of my plan.

When I look back now, I think to myself, how could I expect them to know it was me? They may be able to recognize Toothless because he was my father's dragon, and because he was the only Night Fury they knew. It didn't hurt that he had an artificial tailfin with the symbol of Berk on it.

But me?

When they thought of me, they knew me as a small girl, with freckles and long blond hair, born early, with a Viking accent and an impressive ability to swordfight. They saw me wearing Viking clothes that fit me, and in a kraken. They also saw me as a pest, one that reminded them of my mother. My nails would be bare, I had a few bruises here and there, and I had a nice little yak skin glove with me. And I also loved to read. Everyone knew that. They saw me as a rude young girl with no respect to some.

What they saw now didn't fit what they knew before. What they saw was a stranger with a heavy Viking accent, wearing a kraken, an axe and many swords on the sash. They saw a stranger with a strange robe, and a Night Fury as a pet. They saw a tall, skinny girl, with freckles, blond hair that fell to the knees when down. They saw a girl with bruises on her arms, and a long yak skin glove on my right hand. This girl's nails were painted red, and she had some bandages from scars the Celts gave her. And she talked rather respectably.

And Rupac? Forget it. They wouldn't know a sleeping reptile around my shoulders because they never saw one.

I changed way too much for Berk to recognize me as Siren, daughter of the chief. My name is still Siren, but I was, and am now, a different Siren from what they knew. I think they thought I would look the exact same as I did when I was ten, small and naïve, but intelligent.

I can see that now. I can see why no one believed me to be Hiccup and Astrid's daughter.

* * *

"You?" Eret laughed mockingly. "Daughter of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and Astrid? No. There is no way his daughter would return back to Berk on her own. She wouldn't come back to Berk unless her father forced her back. Siren ran away on a dragon," Eret pointed to Toothless, "that looked like that. How do we know if it's the specific dragon for sure?

"And your dress? What is this?" Eret eyed my kimono.

"And what is that?" a woman with dark brown braids cried, pointing to Rupac. She was buff and muscular, like most Vikings.

"Leave, intruder," Eret said, swinging his axe in my face, "or we kill you, the dragon, and your reptile."

Rupac snorted at the end of his sentence, then slept without snoring.

I would've loved to have stayed and argued. I truly do. I even pulled out my axe to fight.

But I knew deep down, it was a bad idea to foolishly fight back, especially since they didn't recognize me.

That was why I lost the will to fight and put my axe back in my sash, turned around, and left Berk with Toothless and Rupac.

I think that if Daddy or Mummy were there, they would've known it was me. Daddy still tells me I look so much like Mummy, so I think he would've known. And as for Mummy, I really can't say why I think she would've known I was her daughter. I guess she may have seen herself in me.

This was one of those moments when I realized that I was kind of naïve about some things in life. I was naïve to think they'd know me. I'd changed so much that I was no longer recognizable to them.

I've learned so much since then. Especially in the following months, where life was changing as a whole.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hiccup**

It was pointless. It was all pointless.

Astrid was reclusive now, refusing to come out of her room. She'd lost hope, just like Hiccup was losing hope as well. At this point, Hiccup knew it was better that they gave up and wait for Siren to come home on her own. Maybe she'd already returned to Berk and was waiting for him, or maybe she was dead. Maybe she was out, somewhere far away, so far away that it would take her weeks, maybe years to come back.

Or maybe she would never come back at all.

Whatever it was, Hiccup knew it was time to go back home. He knew he couldn't go out on hopeless searches anymore.

There was simply no point.

* * *

 **Siren**

It was a snowy and windy January night, and I was sitting in room at Dragon's Edge, Rupac and Toothless sleeping on one side of the bed, and my Terrible Terrors on the other. My hair fell over my shoulders and onto my knees. In my hand, there was a sword. It was the one I wore to Berk.

I'd been meaning to cut my hair for a long time. I just never got around to it. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I couldn't imagine myself with shorter hair, maybe it was because I couldn't decide what length it was going to be. Maybe it was because my hair was like that for a long time, cutting it felt hard.

But I knew I had to do it. It had grown too long for me to care for. The last time I'd combed it was six or seven months ago, and it had taken me two hours to get all the tangles out.

Back then, it had been only an inch above my knees. Now, it was three inches below them. It was too long for me to be able to care for it.

I took up the sword and held out a lock of my hair. I knew what length I wanted my hair to be now. It was to be three inches below my shoulders, long enough for me to tie into braids or in a bun or anything if I wanted to.

Carefully, I cut the lock and let it drop. I took another lock and cut it, this time a lot quicker than before. Then, I started taking three or four locks at a time, then I cut them. I watched ribbons of blonde fall to the ground, each new set of ribbons quicker than before. Finally, the last set of ribbons fell to the floor.

I dropped the sword and ran my fingers through my hair. I had never felt messier hair in my entire life. I couldn't even get my fingers through the first set of tangles without getting them caught.

I felt a strange sense of relief run through me as I realized my neck didn't hurt as much as it used to. It was an elating feeling to be out of pain and not have two or three pounds of hair weighing on top of me. As sad as I felt to not have long hair, I was equally happy that taking care of my hair would be easier now.

I picked up my sword and put it back in its scabbard. Then, I took a broom and started cleaning up my hair, piling it up. I found a brown sack in the storage room and threw all my chopped off hair in it. I tied the sack and left it at the foot of my bed. At this point, dawn was coming, and my legs felt too tired to mount Toothless, and I lacked the energy to be up in the air right now. I'd already slept some, but now I felt that I had too much energy to go back.

I already knew what projects I had in mind next for three of the pre-lunch classes: Building a stuffed dragon for dragon classifying, a translation guide for Nordic-Celtic, and a book of religions in Japan and the Viking world. For Viking history, it really wasn't necessary because they all knew it by heart through their assignments.

Lately, Rupac had been acting mopey, so I decided that when the kids' next break came in March, Toothless, him, and I would go get some more Quetzalcoatls since he seemed to be lonely. It was also good for me because I could use some more to help the kids when they needed help, especially since more than one needed help at a time. Even though the Quetzalcoatls were slow writers, they could help me calculate percentages on tests, assignments, and projects, though I'd be the one writing comments since, like I said earlier, they were slow writers.

The more Quetzalcoatls I had, the sooner we'd be done marking tests, and the more time I could spend tending to my crops, the more time I could spend writing letters to Ichigo and Rukia, the more time I could spend studying Korean, and most importantly, the more time I could spend riding Toothless around the known archipelago, or riding outside it to map more areas, like I did when I sold rice. I'll be honest here: I did bite off a bit more than I could chew with all that rice.

Especially since the crops were left unattended when I was kidnapped by the Celts.


	9. Chapter 9

**Al**

"Good morning, Al," Sire said, a smile on her face, though it wasn't her usual one. There was something different about it, as though she was trying to hide something. I noticed something else, too: Her hair was significantly shorter than normal. She was wearing it in two braids, similar to the ones her mother wore. She had a kraken around her forehead, and she wore a light blue robe with long, draping sleeves.

"Good morning, Sire," I said, rubbing my bare arms. It was cold out here, and while Siren seemed pretty warm in her robe, with Toothless behind her, I was simply shivering.

"Do you wanna pick your dragon?" she asked. "That way, you don't have to rely on me to get you to Dragon's Edge."

I thought about it for a moment. I learned a lot from Siren in the past two months, even if she gave me a lot of work. I could only imagine how much work the kids were getting.

At this point, most people would've been surprised that the kids managed to keep Siren a secret for so long, but the adults were so obsessed with winning the war with the Celts, it almost felt like a world without adults. Pop was shoving it down my throat that I had to keep the honour of the Meatheads, even though he never bothered teaching me to be chief properly.

There were so many Celts, I told Dad that maybe it's best to end the war and just get a treaty. I'd been on the battlefield before, and just the sheer number of Celts horrified me, as well as the way they looked. Sire described it to me, but nothing prepared me for the actual warriors. Every single one of us were lucky to escape with our lives. I'd be amazed if we even won this war, given that it would take three Vikings to fight one Celt.

It was pointless going against these kind of warriors.

"Sure," I said. She grabbed my hand and we mounted Toothless. Soon, we were flying.

* * *

There was a cave, and it was hollow, with the end, if there was one, being covered in complete darkness.

"You'll come with me. The one who seems most attached to you will be yours," Sire said. She turned to her pet dragon, Toothless, who was scratching his armpit. She reached out and touched his nozzle. He purred softly.

Siren grabbed my hand and led me into the cave as soon as she lit a lantern, using Toothless' flame. Her dragon continued itching his armpit as she led me into the cave. All around us, Monstrous Nightmares, Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, Stormcutters, Zipplebacks, Hotburples, Thunderdrums, and so forth were all around us. Not once did I see a Night Fury.

The cave grew darker and cooler as we went through, only being illuminated by our lantern. I heard a thudding sound behind me. Siren and I turned around, the lantern held high in her hand.

In front of us was an enormous purple Monstrous Nightmare. It was breathing, and teeth jutted our from her lower jaw like rocks on a beach. Her pupils were dilated a little, and she seemed to be sniffing me.

Siren gripped my hand tighter and led me closer to the dragon. She put her lantern to the side and held out her own hand. The dragon came closer and closer until it came into contact with Siren's hand. Siren put my hand on top of hers, then pulled her hand out from under mine.

Her skin was soft, but also scaly. If you rubbed your hand up, it was rough, but when your rubbed it down, it was smooth.

The dragon purred, and her eyelids dropped. It was like she was happy.

For some reason, I began to laugh. I felt a thrill go through me as my hand remained on the skin of the dragon. I felt in awe of my new dragon. I wanted to name her now. I thought of the name I'd give to a pet, if I had one.

Well, I did now.

"Valkyrie," I said out loud. Odin would be proud to hear a dragon being named after his Valkyries.

"She's yours now," Siren said, lifting her lamp up to see us. "Bonding's important because it helps you tame a wild dragon more easily. It also helps you heal an injured dragon more easily."

I put my forehead on Valkyrie's nozzle and closed my eyes.

I could feel Valkyrie do the same.


	10. Chapter 10

**Siren**

Magnus raised his hand as soon as I finished handing out assignments for the kids.

"When are we getting our pen pals?"

I'd forgotten about it. I didn't really want to do the project now, since that would mean way too much work for Sneaky and Sharpshot.

"It hasn't been approved," I lied. I knew the kids would accept that as an answer because I did tell them that would be one of the options.

"Oh. Okay."

"Any other questions?" I asked the kids. Fredegund raised her hand.

"Is our break period two or three weeks long?" she asked.

"Three weeks," I said. Their break would be a week away from now, and I was looking forward to it, since that meant less teaching and more free time to myself. "It's a week away from now."

I could see the enthusiasm in the kids' faces. No doubt they'd be happy to get away from homework for three weeks.

Since there were no other questions left to be asked, I told the kids to work on their assignments while I cooked their lunch for them. I'd already started boiling their rice. Soon, I would have to dry them. Then, I'd wash the squashes and corn, then dry and cut them and serve them along with the mead. Then they'd have a meal.

* * *

 **Hiccup**

"There was a girl who claimed to be Siren," Hiccup muttered, pacing back and forth. "She was tall and skinny, and wore a strange robe. She had a Night Fury and a reptile with her, and wore a kraken. She had a Viking accent, and wore a yak skin glove. She had blonde hair that was tied up, and blue eyes, along with plenty of freckles to boot."

Siren had freckles, blonde hair, blue eyes, a yak skin glove, and a Night Fury. Hiccup didn't know if there were even other Night Furies out there, or if she came from a far away land. All he did know is that if it were him in the position of chief at the time, he would've kept the stranger there to make sure she was actually his daughter. At first, he didn't even think much of it, but when he heard the description, it was sort of similar to that of Siren's. Siren may have been much smaller when she left, but that was close to six years ago. She would've grown quite a bit then.

Not only that, she was outside of the archipelago, and Hiccup knew that because they didn't find her within the archipelago. The strange robe and reptile could've come from other lands outside the archipelago. It was possible Siren had picked up on their customs and had come to her senses eventually through them. She may have made the decision to come back to Berk because she felt Viking way was the right way.

Whatever it was, if Siren had chosen to return to the archipelago, then it might be time to start looking again. Hiccup had a hunch that if he were Siren, the first place he'd start living at would be Dragon's Edge. He and his friends lived there once, and he'd taken Siren there as well. She had been a small child then, and Hiccup could still remember the amount of questions she'd asked about the place. It had been "Daddy this, Daddy that," and so on.

How Hiccup longed for those days.

* * *

 **Siren**

"How did you get into a war with the Celts in the first place?" I asked Al, as soon as I finished translating some of the first paragraphs of the Korean manuscript on shamanism into Nordic. I was planning to translate it into Japanese, then Celtic and Mayan down the road, along with any other languages I learned.

"How did you learn languages so quickly?" Al asked. "I don't know anyone who can learn languages at the rate you did."

"I had to learn quickly," I said. "In the Mayan world, I did end up learning some of the language, and it was just enough to hold a brief conversation, and I had Rupac, so I didn't really need to learn it.

"Japan was a different story. I was expected to speak it without Rupac, and all of the people I was with there spoke Japanese. I usually didn't really speak Nordic there.

"It was similar with the Celts, except I didn't have the benefit of Rupac, so yeah."

"Okay," Al said, dipping his pen into his ink bottle. "We Meatheads got into a war with the Celts when Drago Bludvist attacked a whole village of them. They declared war in return, and some tribes have joined in support of Drago."

"I hate Drago," I said. "He tore my family apart."

"Tell me about it."

I told him the whole story, starting from when Dad met him before I was born to the Second Dragon War when I was five.

"I've heard he was horrible," Al said, pulling his pen out of the ink bottle. The ink dripped down a bit into the bottle, but gradually stopped.

"Yeah, and he needs to be stopped. I'll be the one to do it." I hung my head down and looked up. "Mark my words."

Al's eyes widened in surprise. "Alright, then. Good luck." He returned to his work.

I'd been planning on taking down Drago Bludvist for some time. Once he was gone, my family's suffering would be avenged. Once he was gone, dragons would be freed and maybe given to the care of loving trainers. Once he was gone, the world would be a better place.

But what I didn't know was that his death would bring on much more than I thought it would. Much, much more.


	11. Chapter 11

**Siren**

"I love you soooo much!"

"I wuv you even mooore!"

I watched Rupac mingle with his new Quetzalcoatl girlfriend, Lucille. I'd brought back nine Quetzalcoatls from my recent visit to the Mayan Empire. Five were female, four were male. Rupac immediately formed as attachment with Lucille, and ever since, they'd been hanging out together. They were sickeningly sweet when they were together. It almost made me want to throw up.

Then there were the other Quetzalcoatls: The females were Linda, Cindy, Itzel, and Annette. The males were Chac, Joey, Zeus, and Joseph. None of them had paired up with each other yet, which was what I wanted because if they paired up and started having kids, it would give me a lot of insight into Quetzalcoatl behaviour. I knew a lot through Rupac, but there was also a lot I didn't know. How do they mate? Do they lay eggs? How do they feed their young?

I had similar questions about Toothless as well. For all I knew, there were no more Night Furies out there, or Toothless traveled way too far south or north. It seemed more likely to be north, but I had no way of knowing. The only way to find out was to travel around a bit.

I looked back to my notes on Korean. I was struggling with the translation of the Korean shamanism manuscript. Korean was hard to learn. I'd only been studying it since last March, and I had a very limited ability to hold a conversation. It was like that with Japanese, and I'd started learning that a few years ago, so I had lots of time to work on it.

Sighing, I put them away, and pulled out some of the kids' assignments. I flipped through the Japanese-Nordic translation guide. I noticed on one of the pages, Japanese was translated into the Japanese word for Japanese: _Nihongo._ I smiled as I flipped through. I could recognize _shiroi,_ which was white, and other words as well.

Like me at that point of learning Japanese, my ability to speak and translate it was limited. In a few years, it wouldn't be limited anymore, and they'd have little problem with the language.

That being said, I wished I'd had them make a Nordic-Celtic translation guide instead. Celtic was easier to learn, and a lot quicker. I sighed. There was nothing to do about it now.

I was a week into spring break, and I was a little bored. I wanted to travel out, but I wondered if Al was willing to continue looking after my crops for me. It was hard work to look after them. I needed more than one person to look after them for me while I was away.

Luckily, I knew some kids who would gladly do it.

* * *

"You want us to take care of your crops?" Freya asked, raising an eyebrow. Hod and Magnus were with her, and Rigunth, Fredegund, Gunn, and Alfhild were playing behind them.

"Yes. I'll be away for the rest of the spring break. I'm out to see more lands and learn new things. I'll share them with you when I come back," I said, taking a bite out of my apple. Apples are supposed to keep you eternally young. It keeps the gods, and Idun, guardian of the apple tree, eternally young, so it's gonna keep us Vikings eternally young as well.

Freya scratched her head. "Okay, then."

I've learned one thing from Freya: Not all redheads are fiery and feisty. Some are surprisingly agreeable, more so than you think.

* * *

"This is so good!" I shouted, as Annette, who was wrapped around my neck, had her teeth chattering. I was going to bring Rupac with me, but the minute I tore him away from Lucille, he started throwing a huge tantrum and tried to bite me, so I left him behind with Lucille.

"Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" Annette screamed, shutting her eyes closed. Not too far away, land was there. I saw some figures moving, and they looked like they were carrying baskets.

"Toothless," I commanded. "Slow down."

Immediately, Toothless slowed down to fly at the top speed of a Terrible Terror. I felt nauseous right away, and it took all my willpower not to throw up. Slowly, over the course of half an hour, my nausea began to ease, but not entirely.

"Thor's beard," I muttered, thinking about Rupac and Lucille, "I hope if there's another Quetzalcoatl pairing, then they won't be like Rupac and Lucille."

"Sister, you're in for a rough dealing with Quetzalcoatls," Annette said, her teeth no longer chattering. "If a Quetzalcoatl mates, then both start acting like Lucille and Rupac."

"Okay, then. That's not good," I said. It was a nicer version of what I was actually thinking: I'm fucked. Very fucked.

I decided to change the topic of the conversation. "What do you think the people on that island are going to be like?" I asked.

"I really don't know," Annette said. "They might not be nice, that's something you keep in mind."

I nodded. "You have a point."

We were silent for a couple of minutes. Now, the land was only five minutes away at top speed, and ten at the speed we were currently at.

"I can't wait to finish learning Korean and start Arabic," I said, throwing my arms out.

"I heard many of the Arabian books have stuff on medicine. Rupac told me," Annette said, moving around to face me, with her bright pinks and brown irises. "Some of them have Arabian stories as well, and an Arabian religious book, amongst other stuff."

"Yeah," I scratched Toothless; he purred, and started to go more slowly. It would be another five minutes before going on the island.

"Are you sure you want to learn Arabic?" Annette asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Why? You doubt me?"

"It's just that you might not become a healer or anything. If you do, then you should learn Arabic, but you don't have to if you're not. Besides, wouldn't it be practical to learn the languages of the people that are closer by?"

We'd landed now, far away from the people, right in the middle of a forest. I thought about what Annette said for a minute. I really didn't like it, but she had a point. I had no plan to become a healer, but I had students who did. Perhaps those books would be more useful to them than they were to me.

"You have a point," I said, dismounting Toothless and laying down. Annette slithered off my neck and onto the grass. Toothless purred and laid down. I could tell he was sleeping.

I yawned. "You have a really good point, Annette. You have a good point." Soon, my eyes closed, and I fell fast asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Siren**

I woke up to find myself bound and gagged. Everything around me was dark. Nothing was to be seen.

I could hear Annette groaning loudly; her groan was sharp, and it made my ears hurt.

I could've called out to her there, but my mouth was bound, and so were my hands and legs. I had no way out. Unless I could locate Annette and have her chew through the ropes.

I closed my eyes and tuned my ears in to the sound. It seemed to be coming from the left.

Quietly, I inched toward my left until I felt scaly, rough skin and wood and metal not too far from its surface.

"Is that you, Siren?" Yeah. It was definitely Annette. I obviously didn't respond because of my mouth. Instead, I just held my hands near her mouth. I could feel sharp teeth piercing into my skin and into the ropes. I could feel a liquid trickling down my hands.

"Sorry I pierced your skin," Annette said. "It's bleeding, you know."

Great. That was yet another set of scars to add to my collection. I kept them hidden underneath my kimonos. That way, I wouldn't have to remember.

I removed the gag around my mouth and took a deep breath. It felt good. So good.

I rubbed my wrists to restore circulation to them. Then, I turned to Annette and rubbed her skin. I could feel wood and metal along the length, as well as a lock on the metal. From what I could feel, there was no way to get her out unless I had a key.

"I can't get you out, Annette," I said, rubbing my forehead, trying to think. "I think we need a key."

As I said that, I could hear a door opening and I instantly could feel sunlight onto my skin. I turned around, my eyes blinded by the sun.

The man who opened the door had a large red beard, and weighed around 400 pounds. He wore a green robe with chainmail and had a brown belt around his waist. He reminded me a lot of my grandfather, Stoick the Vast. I'd seen a painting of him and Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror from when he was fifteen. Hiccup had just then found the treasure of Hamish the First. He'd discovered that Hamish the Second, his son, was also a hiccup like him.

Like me as well.

"She knows Nordic!" the man shouted. In the sunlight, his eyes pierced me, with fear and curiosity. "She might be a Viking!"

Another Viking tribe. The last one I'd seen were the Meatheads.

* * *

 **Al**

"She ran away and you didn't even question her?" I yelled, as Freya cowered down with her hands over her head, trembling with fear.

"She said she was coming back," Hod said, back arched over a stalk of rice. "I hope she meets some hot females."

" _Hot females?! HOT FEMALES?!_ " This is what Hod's worried about? Hot females instead of Siren's safety? What if she was kidnapped by the Celts again?! Immediately, I went into the rice field and pulled Hod up to face me. Quickly, I slapped him hard.

"That's what you get for being more concerned about hot females instead of Siren!" I shouted, waving my arms around. I put my hands on my waist and turned to Valkyrie, who was nibbling at the fish in the basket I'd brought for her.

"Come on, Valkyrie," I called out. "Let's go find Siren."

Valkyrie looked up from the fish basket and ran to me. She thrust me up in the air with her snout and I landed on her back. I readjusted my position and she spread her wings and took off.

* * *

 **Siren**

"There are Vikings married to _Celts?!"_ I said, completely astounded.

"Yes," Od said. He was the man who looked like my grandfather, Stoick the Vast. "We settled with the Scottish Celts and intermarried. I have three sons with my wife, Marvina. She's quite a lovely girl, you know. She knows Nordic, and I know Scottish Gaelic. Many of us do."

"But you speak a different language than the other Celts, though you do have the same gods and myths. Why-"

Od held his hand up. "There are different groups of Celts. The ones some Viking tribes are at war with are the French Celts. They live in France and have the same mythology and customs, but speak a different language. Their language is closer to the Normans' language, who are a tribe that also live in France. The ones who generally intermarry with Vikings are the Irish and Scottish Celts. The Scottish Celts live here. The Irish live on another island. The Welsh Celts live farther south than we do. You'll also meet the Manx on another island just north of the Welsh, as well as the Cornish another thirty or so miles from here. So that's what you need to know. Tell me about you. You said Nordic and Celtic French were only two of the languages you knew. What others do you know? And is it true that groups of Vikings have an alliance with dragons?" He leaned forward, hands supporting his chin.

"I know Mayan and Japanese, and I'm learning Korean. I have a library back in the Barbaric Archipelago on an island called Dragon's Edge. I teach at a nearby island. My students are taking a break, so I thought I'd travel around a bit more. My father, Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror, was responsible for the peace between dragons and humans," I said, not wanting to reveal too much because I'd just been tied up by these Viking Celts. They only let me go because I'm a Viking. What if they didn't like anyone who different?

"Where do they speak Mayan, Japanese, and Korean? Do you have books in other languages? Have you been to other places? And how did your father make peace between Vikings and dragons?" Od asked, leaning closer. "And one more thing: Your dragon's safe. He's with the king of our village."

" _King?!_ " I almost spat at the idea.

"Yes, I know Vikings are used to chiefs because of their villages, but when Vikings intermarried with Scottish and Irish Celts, the village got too big, so the chief became a king instead."

"Wow," I said. Then I remembered what Od asked me. He seemed trustworthy. I could tell by instinct. So I went ahead and told him the story about how my dad made peace between dragons and Vikings, me running away, finding the Mayan Empire and meeting the Quetzalcoatls, going to Japan, seeing Korea and China, moving around the Arabic Empire and stealing plenty of books from the libraries there until my bags became too heavy and I had to leave. Then, I told him about being kidnapped by the Celts. I couldn't bring myself to describe the torture I endured because I couldn't without crying. It brought back horrible flashbacks. I didn't want to think about it.

I told Od about how Trader Johann saved my life, and me starting my life as a teacher on Meathead Island. I also told him about the books written in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Nordic, Arabic, Mayan, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek. I didn't say anything about the instruments because I didn't know how to play them yet, but I planned to start learning when I went back to Japan for the summer.

"So that's it," I said, slapping my hands on the table. "Any questions?"

Od didn't answer.

That was because Al burst in through the door all of a sudden.


	13. Chapter 13

**Siren**

"Al!" I cried, rising out of my chair. I gripped the edge of the table nervously, my nails digging into the wood. What was he doing here? Why did he leave the Meathead Island? What made him to do that?

Al didn't say anything. Instead, he just marched forward while two or three other Viking Celts tried to grab his arms to keep him from running to me. He just punched them from behind, without a moment of hesitation. When he was close, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me away.

"What are you doing? These are nice people!" I cried. "They're not that bad!"

Al still didn't say anything. Instead, he pulled so hard that I tripped and fell down. He dragged me out of the building while I kicked and screamed. I kept protesting vehemently, but Al didn't listen. He pulled me toward Toothless and Valkyrie, who were playing a game of tag. Al whistled out, and Valkyrie came running toward him, Toothless coming after her. Al threw me onto Toothless' saddle, and he mounted Valkyrie.

"We're leaving here," he said. "I've come to save you."

 _Save me?_ I didn't get it.

Valkyrie spread her wings and took off. I decided it would be best to motion to Toothless to take off too, and soon, we were up in the air.

* * *

"What you did was reckless," Al said, waving his hands around. "You could have been eaten alive by those people."

"What do you mean, I could've been eaten alive by them?!" We were in my study, with a pile of books on the table. I was sitting in my chair, and Al was walking back and forth. Now that I saw that pile of books, some of which were about Celtic customs, I could've sent some to the Viking Celts so then I could have Gaelic books. It would've added to the store of knowledge on Celts, combined with the fact that there were Vikings who married Celts. I would've liked to have known how they got there.

"Annette said you were tied up by them first," he cried, "and they only let you out because they realized you were a Viking."

"True," I admitted, "but-"

"No buts!" Al said, shaking his finger. "Don't go anywhere without telling me and bring a weapon. The people you meet may not be nice to you."

Looking, I can see why that was so reckless. Al was right about the people not being nice.

* * *

 **Hiccup**

His eyes opened slowly, to see Eret standing over him.

"You're in no state to search for your kid," he said. "You collapsed while officiating a wedding."

Hiccup rubbed his forehead, then his eyes to get rid of the grit. He moaned softly. For some reason, he couldn't will himself to stand up. It was like all of his energy left because of the strain of the last few years.

"Get some rest for a while," Eret said softly, putting his hand on Hiccup's forehead. "You've got a fever. You really need to rest."

Hiccup could feel his eyelids drooping again, and slowly, the world faded to black.

* * *

 **I've got a question: Do any of you think Siren is a Mary Sue? I really hope she's not, because I want her to be a realistic character. I would like feedback on her from all of the stories about her.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Siren**

"It's been a year since I met the Viking Celts," I said, throwing another book on the table as Joey, one of my Quetzalcoatls, eyed it. "I haven't seen them ever since, and they presumably don't think very highly of me. A shame, too. It would've been nice to have had some books written in Gaelic."

I was still too proud to admit that it was reckless to go off like that and trust them easily, especially when they'd bound and gagged me very quickly. That was last March, and now, it was mid-July. I was taking a break from teaching for a couple of months, then classes would start again in September. To pass the time when I was not looking after my crops, I started learning to play the zheng, an instrument I got from Japan, though it was made in China. I also started learning Japanese sword techniques to better my fighting.

My Korean was better now since I'd been studying for two years. In a couple more years, I thought, I'll be fluent in the language. Then I can start Chinese and start translating the books. I wasn't going to bother with Arabic because I knew kids who wanted to be healers, and there were a lot of Arabic medicine books, as well as a few on the human body, so I assigned the older ones to learn Arabic. I didn't know Arabic, so they would have to rely on Linda, whose job it was to teach Arabic. Apparently Arabic was a hard language.

"Yes, I know. You keep saying that all the time, Lady Siren," Joey said. "You might get a chance in the future, though, when you become a queen."

"What makes you think I'm going to be a queen?" I asked. Joey had been calling me Lady Siren since a week before I left for Japan to learn some zheng notes. While in Japan, I was a little surprised at first that I'd been called Lady Sawako (my Japanese name), I got used to it quickly because I remembered why they called me that.

"We, the Quetzalcoatls, know you are going to be a queen with your skills and knowledge," said at least four other Quetzalcoatls that popped up behind Joey in unison. They were Cindy, Itzel, Zeus, and Chac. "You'll bring the tribes into one," all five spoke in unison, with pride in their voices.

I scoffed. Me? Queen? As if.

I went outside, where the wind was blowing. In the distance, I could see ships headed toward the shore of Dragon's Edge. They were huge, with large dragons at their bows.

I couldn't say how, but I knew that they were enemy ships sailing toward Meathead Island. I had to warn Al, and fast.

Toothless crawled up behind me and purred. Silently, I turned around and mounted him.

* * *

 **Al**

I watched Dad's ships sail away. He left without a word. Of course he did. I was worthless to him. We hardly saw each other, and I never saw my mother. She was dead. Rumour has it that he killed her.

I sighed and kicked another rock from behind me. Up in the sky, I could see Siren coming on Toothless. While my Dad was heading south, Siren was coming from north, and half a dozen ships came from north too. Toothless landed on the roof of my house and Siren slid off him easily. She cascaded down the roof and sat on the edge.

"Those ships coming from north," Siren said, pointing in that direction, her braids blowing in the wind. I could hardly remember a time when she wasn't wearing them. "I think they're enemy ships."

I looked north. The sails had red and white stripes, an dragon shaped mastheads. They had spikes on the sides, and there were strange paintings, too.

Siren was right. The only reason these ships would come unannounced would be that they were enemy ships.

"All the adults are gone," I shouted up to Siren. "I'll get the kids ready."

She nodded, then held out her hand. I pulled her down, and Toothless followed.

"I'll join in on the fight," she said, rubbing her arms, flexing them with pride. "I'm one of the best swordfighters out there, and I'm learning some new sword fighting techniques."

I nodded. "Good."


	15. Chapter 15

**Siren**

All of the Meathead warriors were standing in rows of ten, strongest warriors at the front and weakest at the back. All of us held our weapons out as the ships drew nearer. I could see the men on those ships holding their toys out eagerly, savage smiles on their faces. I could see dragons locked up in cages and chains, looking as though they were starved and beaten. I tried my hardest not to think of those French Celts who'd beaten and starved me. I still remember them thinking of cutting my head off because the head supposedly holds spiritual power to them.

Our dragons were above us, Toothless included. I found an artificial tailfin that could help him fly on his own, so I strapped it to him so he could lead the dragons' into battle.

I watched as a rowboat was lowered down from the ship at the front. A large, burly man with a metal arm and black dreadlocks came down.

Drago Bludvist.

More rowboats came down with more warriors as the first rowboat came toward us, very fast and swift. I could see Drago more clearly now, with his scars and cape.

I looked up at Toothless, flying above me. I made the signal to fire at the water, not Drago. Toothless obeyed.

A spray of water blew up, and I heard a scream. The wave went down, and I could see Drago rubbing his eyes. I could see his mouth moving, so I thought he was groaning.

"Let's kill Drago now!" I said, raising my sword. Alf, the best archer in my class, was beside me, readying himself. From what Al told me, as well as the Japanese shoguns, I felt like the best battle strategy would be to kill Drago first, then take down everyone else. I learned it from the captain of one army in Okada.

"Just a little closer," Alf kept muttering as the rowboat drew near. Drago was now only about eleven feet away from the shore; now would be the perfect time to shoot. Immediately, he let of the arrow as our dragons came down to us. It struck Drago's arm; not the metal one, but his real arm. We watched as his arm fell off and drop into the sea, blood dripping from the stump.

I mounted Toothless and signaled to everyone that the real battle was about to begin. In unison, all of us rose up, and Toothless fired a plasma blast.

This was it. This was the moment I was made for.


	16. Chapter 16

**Siren**

I quickly mounted Toothless as soon as all of the other riders took off. He was glowing a deep blue, and his wings were spread out. He immediately lifted off the ground and we flew toward Drago's boat, which was still there. Drago's back was to us, and I could still see blood dripping. I took out my sword and held it with my right, readying my left to fight. I'd learned through a shogun that it was good to know how to fight with boat hands as one hand could be injured, then you wouldn't be able to fight.

Toothless went down swiftly, and very slowly, I thrust the sword through Dagur. It was only then that I noticed something I should've realized when Alf shot Dagur and his arm fell in the water way too easily: It wasn't the real Dagur Bludvist. It was a dummy.

We'd been duped.

* * *

Where was the real Drago? He had to be on one of the ships.

But which one was it?

"You gotta help me here, bud. We have to find Drago." Toothless growled deeply. I could imagine his eyes becoming narrow slits, like they did when he was angry. We flew to the first and foremost of the ships. It was a large, dominating ship, with a ferocious dragon as its mast and huge spikes sticking through out the ship. It was the largest one out of all the ships, and I figured that the larger it was, the more likely Drago was on it.

I remember we flew so fast that my teeth were chattering from the cold, even though I tried to stop, it just wouldn't. I could feel goosebumps as I jumped off Toothless and landed on my right foot, kneeling on the ship. I felt a jolt of pain rush through my foot, and I could feel water dripping from my eyes. A flash of lightning boomed as I stood, and silently, I prayed to Odin for good luck. I was wearing a fingerless yak glove on my right hand, and I rubbed it for good luck. I then took it off and threw it on the deck.

"Odin, make this be my day. Help me kill Drago," I prayed.

Looking back now, I don't know how I thought throwing off the yak glove would give me good luck. I guess war does make you crazy sometimes.

* * *

I ran straight ahead for the first door I saw and kicked it down. Behind the door was a man with a red beard and green eyes. His skin was very pale, so pale that you could see his veins bulge out. He was shirtless, with only a very thin pair of pants to wear. I grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye.

"Where is Drago? Tell me or I'll make sure you lose a lot of blood," I said, gritting my teeth. I still can vividly remember the look in his eyes: No fear, just blank staring.

"I will," he said. HIs accent didn't sound like a Nordic one. I remembered those Viking Celts I'd met. The Celts had accents similar to his. Many had red hair and green eyes like he did. Could he be a Viking Celt?

I immediately felt skeptical: What if he was trying to get me killed by Drago? But then I remembered Eret, son of Eret. He worked for Drago, but was actually a good person who maybe didn't have another option for whatever reason. It could be the same with this man.

Or it could be different.

I gripped my sword very tightly. "If you do anything silly, it'll be your head rolling on this very deck. Understood?"

The man nodded. "Call me Llewlyn."

"Siren," I said, "Siren of the Hooligans, daughter of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Dragon Conqueror and Chief of Berk. Bow down in fear at the sound of his name."

"Your father waged war against Drago many years ago, I believe?" Llewlyn said.

"Yes," I said. "And tonight, it'll end with Drago's head in my hands."

"Good. Many of us were waiting for this day."

I nodded. My instinct told me I could trust him, but I still had to be careful. He could still betray me.

"Drago is in the room directly to our left. Your appearance will take him by surprise," Llewlyn said.

"Alright," I said, breathing heavily, my chest swelling. "But mark my words: If you are lying, your head will end up like Drago's will."

Llewlyn nodded. "Yes."

* * *

My foot throbbing heavily, I kicked down the door directly left to the one Llewlyn was in, and I heard a gasp. A flash of thunder struck behind me, and I could see it was Drago Bludvist. It was the real man.

"It ends tonight, Drago," I said quietly, trying to sound more confident than I actually was. Drago was a big man compared to me, a skinny little stick.

I limped as I took a step forward and plunged my sword into Drago's side. I could hear a hiss of pain come as I was lifted off my feet by him.

"Well little girl. Do you really think you can stop me?" I could hear the venom in Drago's voice, and I can still hear it today. I don't know why, but at that moment, I could feel all my fear leave me. It was like a rush of...I don't know really. The luck of Odin, I suppose?

"Yes," I said, tightening my hold on the sword and raising. At that moment, I stabbed Drago's neck, and a sprout of blood erupted from his throat, splattering me and my face with it. I pulled the sword out as blood dripped down from it, then took another stab. This time, Drago dropped me and fell to the ground. I tried to get back up to both feet, but found, to my dismay, I was unable to. I got up to my knees and moved toward Drago, putting the sword down to make it easier and then picking it up again. I could hear groans coming from Drago's mouth. When I look back now, I find it scary how he could do that.

I raised the sword again and struck a hard blow to Drago's neck. Another boom of lightning came, and I could see Drago's severed head in a pool of blood.

I was right.

It had ended tonight, on July 23rd, just a few months before I'd turn seventeen.


	17. Chapter 17

**Siren**

"Hey, princess," a random voice came.

I opened my eyes. The light was blinding, and I could see the dark yellow silhouette of a man holding my hand, with his toned arms and yak skin gloves. He had deep blue eyes and blonde hair, like I did. I could tell he wasn't wearing a shirt. My arms felt incredibly warm, and I could still feel a throbbing pain in my right foot.

I blinked a couple of times, then let my eyes grow wide open. I was breathing heavily, and I felt really tired. I felt like I'd been sleeping for only fifteen minutes.

It was Al. He was holding me in his arms. Now that I could see things more clearly, his hair fell over his shoulders, and he had a warm smile on his face. His chest stood out a lot to me, and his skin was so incredibly soft and smooth. It felt good.

"How's your foot?" he asked, helping me sit up against a wooden wall.

"It still hurts," I said, "but I'm sure I can walk."

Putting my weight on my left foot, I propped myself to stand up straight. Then, I took one step forward and fell forward. Al caught me.

"I think you might have broken it," Al said, putting one of his arms behind my knees and lifting me. I looked around the room and recognized my Mayan calendar, as well as my desk with books and the ink bottle. I also recognized a couple of my kimonos and my Japanese sword.

I was in my bedroom.

"What time is it?" I asked, groaning and rubbing my eyes.

"It's around noon," Al said. "It's July 24th today."

"I felt like I've been sleeping for only fifteen minutes," I moaned, as Al set me down on the edge of the bed. He sat on the edge, and now I could get a better look at him.

He had really nice abs, and his chest had scars all over it, with some of the scars appearing to be recent with others looking like they were years old. Some of them might have even faded away.

"Sleep, princess," Al said, holding his hand over my head.

"Since when were you calling me princess?" I asked, weary.

"I don't know," he said, and I could see everything turn to black.


	18. Chapter 18

**Siren**

I turned the pages of the book I was translating to from Nordic to Japanese and flipped through its pages until I found where I left off. I began writing down the translations from the original book, which was open in front of me.

I was about halfway through the first page when the door burst open. Al was standing there, panting a bit, and rubbing his forehead. He had a fur coat on top of his greenish black tunic, and leather pants. His arms were bulging, and I suddenly felt a bit insecure about my messy hair. What if he didn't like it?

"Siren," he said, standing up straight, "we've got a problem."

I set the pen down and looked at Al. "What's going on? Is it something with the kids?"

"No," Al said, closing the door behind him. "It's something worse. Remember all those people who worked for Drago until you killed him?"

"What about them?"

"Where are they going to go? They won't listen to me because I didn't kill him."

Now you know what I meant when I said that killing Drago brought on a lot more than I thought it would bring on.

"Al," I said, "take the books and put them on the desks. Then take me to where the people are." It had only been three days after I broke my ankle, and half the time, it would throb with pain while the other half, it would feel sore.

Al took my books and laid them on the desks so I could work on them later. Then, he carried me, putting one arm behind the knees and another behind my back.

* * *

The sun was bright, and kind of blinding since I hadn't been outside in three days. It felt rather unusual to be carried down stairs because now I couldn't walk. I was so used to running around and riding Toothless that it just seemed surreal. That's how I can best describe the experience.

Al put me onto Toothless. I could hear him purr loudly and joyfully as he put me down.

"I'm happy to be with you too, bud," I said, laughing a little just at the idea of being on Toothless. It felt like a million years since I was on him. It was like I was back to being five in less than two minutes, still young, still so innocent, still fresh and full of hope.

Al climbed behind me and we took off.

* * *

As we approached Meathead Island, I could see huge lines of men, women, children as young as two and babies being held by their mothers standing one by one, their faces appearing solemn and waiting.

Toothless landed with barely a sound, and Al pulled me off him after he dismounted first. I made sure to put all my weight on my left foot while Al held my hips to keep me standing. One of Drago's former soldiers came forward, his head high as I steadied myself, breathing heavily. I stared the soldier in the eye and immediately recognized him: It was Llewlyn.

"We've got no home to return to," Llewlyn said, his face solemn, "Drago burned down our villages and towns, killing our chiefs. Now that he is dead, we look to you. You were the one who killed him, after all."

They had nowhere to go, I thought. Where could I put them? There were lots of islands that had no people and very few dragons on them. Then again, only a fraction were owned by Berk, and I had no idea how many of these soldiers there were. There were also the rice fields, but how many would be fit to work on them?

 _Just have some work on the rice fields to earn their keep since you can't anymore_ _, and move as many as possible to the islands owned by Berk._

"Alright," I said, my voice raising itself, "who's the strongest amongst all these people? I ask you to come forward with your families."

The soldiers whispered amongst themselves as many strong, sturdy men came with their ladies and children, as well as some other relatives.

"Separate yourselves!" I demanded. "Strong sturdy men and families on the right, the others on the left!"

It took about ten minutes for both of them to separate themselves, then when they were in two distinct groups, I began explaining to them that their jobs would be to work on rice and vegetable farms with their families, and the oldest child would be the one to get the farm when the head died.

"I can't promise that there will be enough crops for everyone, but I'll see to it that as many families as possible get a farm. As for the rest of you, there are other islands in the archipelago that are uninhabited. I will see to it that you get a home on those uninhabited islands. Any questions?"

"Is your father is the Dragon Conqueror?" one small little dark haired girl asked. She had a very interesting accent, one that sounded similar to Drago's, but distinct in its own way.

The little girl's family was in the farm family section, and her father hushed her, speaking in their tongue while her mother and someone who looked like her older sister were scowling.

"Yes," I said, without a moment of hesitation. "I am the daughter of Hiccup, the Dragon Conqueror and Chief of Berk. I am Siren of the Hooligans."

"More like king," one of the men remarked. "Any man who has to deal with these many people living on their lands can't call himself a chief."

"I suppose that makes you a princess," Al whispered.

"Shut up," I hissed.

"You may have killed Drago, which is what your father failed to do," the little girl's father said, "but you've still got a lot to live up to. Something as big as being the Dragon Conqueror is hard to live up to, even if you manage to kill Drago Bludvist, of all people. Remember that."

I nodded. "I will."

For the rest of the day, we loaded all the strong, sturdy men and their families onto the ships and sailed to Dragon's Edge, which took well over two hours. By the end of the day, about half of the rice fields on Dragon's Edge had been given to one family per rice field, and some of the trees were chopped down to build the houses.

"Hopefully after everyone's found a home, I can get back to teaching and translating the books," I said, as Al put me in my bed for the night.

"I'm going to be carrying you a lot, princess," Al said, with a cocky smile. "Unless you're able to walk very soon."

"True," I said with a smile. "True."

Al sat on the edge of the bed and began to undo my braids, spreading my hair out and running his fingers through my hair.

"Such curly hair," he said, as he began to braid it.

"You know how to braid hair?" I asked, full of surprise. I honestly wasn't expecting him to know. Not that it made it unpleasant. In fact, it was a very pleasant surprise.

"My cousin Brunhild taught me."

"Okay."

As soon as he finished braiding my hair, we said good night to each other and went to bed.

Little did I know how much my life would change after killing Drago, and how it would lead me back to my father.


	19. Chapter 19

**Siren**

Al woke me up the next day, ready to begin assigning fields of rice to families. There were still quite a few left, though there were also beans, squash, and corn fields for me to assign, so it seemed likely that just about everyone would get a piece of land to cultivate and pass on.

As soon as I finished braiding my hair and changing into a dress I was gifted from Siam on my last Japan trip, I called Al in to pick me up and take me down to the rice fields. There, a huge line of families was standing, carrying babes and bundles of clothing, with mothers and fathers holding the hands of their children.

I recognized the very first family in line that day. It was the family of that little girl who asked me if my father was the Dragon Conqueror.

* * *

"Hi," the little girl said, waving her hand as Al and I directed her family to their rice field, "my name is Yanya. I'm six years old." She gave me a toothy smile. I could see a gap in her mouth, indicating her tooth had fallen out recently. "This is my sister, Malina. She's thirteen."

Her parents smiled while her sister scowled, staring out over the rice field. "How are we going to grow all _this?!_ "Malina spat. "We know nothing about it."

Yanya's father glared at Malina while her mother pursed her lips.

"We'll get your house built as soon as possible," Al said, keeping my waist in his grip, "I'll be able to help you, but Siren here can't, because her ankle's been injured."

Yanya and Malina's father nodded. "Good. We need all the help we can get." He looked at me, stern look blazing in his eyes. "You better be doing something that'll be good for us."

"We will," I said, trying to sound as confident as possible.

It was clear he didn't believe that.

* * *

Every single family got a field of crops to look after by the end of the afternoon, and now fifteen houses were partially built. Every single man and older boy was helping build them, as well as some of the women and girls. I was weary by the end of the afternoon, and so was Al from carrying me.

"I hope you heal up soon," he said, laying me down and moving my dress up. He removed the shoe on my right foot to see what it looked like and sighed. It was still very swollen, and it looked like it would be that way for a long time. "The sooner you heal up, the sooner we'll be able to get the jobs done and all those people on Meathead Island onto Berk's islands."

I gasped in horror. I'd completely forgotten about the weaker men!

"Look," he put his hands on my shoulders, "I'll send a message to Meathead Island telling everyone they need to wait for sometime before they get a new home. You get rest."

"Al," I said, "you don't need to do this. I can get Toothless to carry me around while you help build houses. I'll be able to get the people to the islands quicker if I'm going on Toothless. In no time, this whole thing will be solved and we won't have to worry about anything."

"I guess you're right," Al said, breathing in deeply. "Valkyrie, Toothless, and I will be sleeping with you for the night. I'll go get them."

"Thanks, Al," I said, as he tucked me into bed, "you're a life saver." I closed my eyes and smiled a little, my heart fluttering. I could feel something contact my forehead, and I opened my eyes. Al's chin was between my eyes, and there was direct skin to skin contact. It was almost like his lips were...

It clicked: He was kissing my forehead. My smile became even wider, and I closed my eyes, allowing myself to sink into a deep sleep.


	20. Chapter 20

**Siren**

"There are Serbs, Croatians, Danes, Bosnians, Scottish Celts, Irish Celts, Welsh people, Finns, Swedes, Manx, and Cornish peoples," Rupac said, slithering around my arm.

I was sitting with Toothless, Sneaky, Sharpshot, and Lucille in the Meathead Great Hall, with the remainder of Drago's army seated on the benches, waiting for me to make my announcement.

"We'll separate them based on group," I said, speaking in Japanese after thinking for a little while, "the Serbs are one island, the Croats on another, and so forth."

"Sawako," Rupac said, clearing his voice, still speaking in Japanese, "some of the groups are pretty similar to each other, with only very few differences. The Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians are similar, and the Scottish and Irish Celts are fairly similar. Should we put similar groups on the same island or should we still keep them separate?"

"Just put similar groups on the same island if the island's big enough," I said. "It's going to save time. We'll be able to get them houses and work sooner if we put those guys together."

* * *

I watched as another tree fell to the ground and was loaded onto one of the wagons driven by a Monstrous Nightmare.

They knew I wasn't going to be helping because of my ankle. I would've if I were able to. Right now, the Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats had just started building their houses, and I brought in some working dragons to help them. The wagons had come from Meathead Island, and we carried them over on ships.

"Should I stay or should I go?" I asked, looking at the Serbian chief. The three groups may have been living on the island together, but they were living in their own ethnic groups and each village would have their own chief.

"You leave," the man said. He was dark haired, and had dark eyes. His skin was a darker shade of brown than mine was, as though he'd been in the sun a lot, and he was about twice as thin as Llewlyn, who was sailing toward Itchy Armpit with the other Celts to start a life there. He had a red tunic and brown breeches on, and he was barefoot. His accent sounded very similar to Drago's, Yanya's, Malina's and their family's. "You remove Drago and give us house. That enough."

I nodded, feeling very relieved to be able to leave. "Thank you."

The man nodded, and held out his hand. I took it, and he helped me up onto Toothless.

"He's a nice man, Toothless. He'll be a good chief," I said, as we took off into the sky.

"He deserves it."

* * *

I began bathing in the moonlight while Toothless had his back turned to me. My hair was wet and tangled, and I hadn't combed it in three days, so I needed to take care of that.

I could hear footsteps coming in the distance. I turned toward the beach to see who it was. I could see a faint outline of a bulky man, with strong looking legs and a purple Monstrous Nightmare behind him. It was Al's dragon, Valkyrie.

"Oh, Toothless. I didn't know Siren was here," I heard Al say in the distance as I began to move toward him. "I'll get going, I guess." He sounded a little disappointed.

"You don't have to go, Al!" I called out, as Al began to turn his back to me. He stopped, then looked at me.

"Alright. If you want, we can stay here for a night. Just you and me. I'll bring blankets," he shouted.

"Bring 'em on!" I yelled back, as he started running back with Valkyrie at his foot.

About fifteen minutes later, Al and Valkyrie were back, with blankets in Al's hands. I watched as he threw them down and began to take off his clothes. Soon, he was like me, completely naked and very wet, with seawater saturating our hair.

It was a strange, good feeling to have Al naked with me, even though I really didn't know him and never thought of him and me doing it. I still wonder why. I suppose it's something that happens all of a sudden, and you have no way of telling when it does, or where, or even if you get that feeling with someone you think you know, but you actually don't.

Another fifteen minutes later, Al came out of the water, carrying me. My nipples grew cold and hard, and I had a need to have Al's thick, strong hands rub my body, and for his fingers to run through my hair. I could only imagine how good it would feel.

He set me down and wrapped me in one of the blankets. "Are you cold?" he asked, his voice full of concern. He put his hand to my forehead to feel it. "You seem OK."

"I am," I said, smiling.

"I do hope I didn't make you feel weird," he said suddenly, sounding anxious.

"It was different," I said, sitting up, my torso exposed to the night air. I could feel goosebumps run up and down my body, and my nipples growing even harder. "Different, but not weird in any way."

"Oh," he said. "Okay. Let's put on our clothes and sleep." Al stood up, his silhouette outlined by the moonlight, where I could see his entire body. It was just too overwhelming for me to describe, and it still is now.

We went to bed that night, the moonlight shining on us and our hands intertwined, with our dragons snoring away.

It was beautiful and one of the best nights ever.

* * *

 **I deliberately wrote it so that Siren would think that she knows Al, but really doesn't. Also, during the bathing scene, you should really listen to Romantic Flight. It adds so much to the scene.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Siren**

It was October 23rd. Three months since I killed Drago.

I was in my library, studying Gaelic. There were people in Drago's army who barely knew a word of Nordic, and they needed to be integrated into Viking society. I tried to put out a rule saying no one was a citizen of Berk unless they knew Nordic, but Al immediately saw something wrong with that.

"If a man born to Gaelic parents needs to only learn Nordic to be a citizen of Berk, then he might not learn Gaelic and pass the language on to his children, so maybe it could be that they need to know Nordic and one other language to be a citizen," he said, when I told him about that new rule three weeks prior.

Ever since that night Drago died, Al's people hadn't returned, making Al the chief of the Meatheads, my ankle had healed fully and I could walk on my own, and I had to deal with a lot of bullshit from the people on the islands, leaving me no time to teach the kids.

Not that I missed it.

It all started in August, when I realized that some people from the groups had intermarried, so they couldn't be put onto one island until Al told me that the Slavs (Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians) thought lineage came from the father, so a child born to a Croat mom and Serb dad was considered a Serb. I thought using that principle would help everyone, and it worked out pretty well for the Slavs. It also worked out well in some of the other communities, but with some, they were being persecuted because they were not 'pure.' I was going to move them to another island but Al said they could end up being persecuted everywhere, so it would be in their best interests to put them on Meathead Island, where they wouldn't be persecuted. Besides, there were empty houses of people who would never return, so it was best to put them to use. I made a rule saying that anyone who persecuted another based on separate ethnicities or for not being 'pure' had to pay a monetary sum to the victims. Yes, I'd forced _weregild_ onto people with different beliefs, but it was actually quite difficult to get _weregild_ in. I had multiple conversations with all the tribe chiefs, and we had a rule that no law or decision to go to war and so forth could be passed unless all the chiefs and me agreed fully and a hundred percent, so at the end, we got something similar to _weregild_ in.

That's just some of the bullshit I've dealt with, but for the most part, nothing really bad has happened yet. Which is good, and that's how things should be.

So back to me studying Gaelic in my library. I was staring over the pages, drooling a little bit, and feeling frustrated. Gaelic was extremely difficult to learn, like Annette had told me when I first began studying three weeks after Drago's death. It might not have been as hard as Korean or Japanese, but it was still frustrating. I was only studying the language because it would be more convenient than Mayan or Japanese and because I'd come to an agreement with the other chiefs that we all learn at least one other language other than our native one.

As I was going over vowels, I heard a knock on the door. I rubbed my forehead in exasperation and sighed.

"Come in," I said, feeling overly weary. Whoever it was opened it wide and left it open.

"Hiccup!" the voice cried. I looked over.

The woman was about five foot nine, only two inches shorter than me, and had blonde hair with streaks of gray running through them. There were bags under her blue eyes, like she hadn't slept in a very long time, and she had a kraken around her hair, which was tied into a single braid. She wore a blue sheepskin shirt with spiked padding and a red skirt with mini spikes, complete with typical Viking boots and brown pants.

"I think she's Siren!" she cried. "I think she's our daughter!"


	22. Chapter 22

**Siren**

"What do you mean I'm responsible for all these people?!" Dad lamented as Al remained calm about the situation. "How does this happen? How?"

"Siren killed Drago, and his men had nowhere to go, and none of the older Meatheads returned from the war, so we had to settle them somewhere, and Berk's lands were the best option we had," Al said, his face stoic and expressionless.

Dad sat down. "Get me some mead. NOW! We'll discuss this tomorrow."

He was clearly not in a good mood.

* * *

I sat down in the Meathead Hall, with chopsticks in my hand and rice right in front of me, with fish, corn, and beans. I picked at my food as Dad came and sat down in front of me.

"Al told me you wanted to pass a new law. This law means you are not a citizen unless you know Nordic and one other language. Is this true?" he asked.

Dad looked a lot older. His hair was thinning and growing grey, and he had deep wrinkles, even though he was no older than thirty-seven at the time. His lips were dry, and his hands were gnarly, like that of an eighty year old man.

It was hard to believe seven years ago, he looked a lot more like an actual thirty year old. I immediately felt even more guilt for leaving him.

 _Remember how he neglected you at times?_

Then again, he wasn't the best father. He could've been better.

"Yes. There are all these different groups of people with different cultures, and some don't know Nordic, so we need to get them to fit in better. It was Al's idea to include the two languages part." I took a huge breath in and waited for Dad's response.

He was silent for a little while. Then he spoke:

"You do realize underneath that rule, the king, which is me, would not be a citizen of his own country?"

That actually hit me really hard. I didn't really think through a lot of the rules I set up, now did I?

"What have you been doing in these past seven years?" Dad asked, after a long silence.

I took a deep breath and began to speak.


	23. Chapter 23

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I remember once a teacher said that back around this time, if you wanted to have _x_ amount of kids, you'd have to have twice the amount you wanted because half of your kids would die. So if you wanted four kids, then you had to have had eight because half would die. And you married young because lifespans were only 30-40 years back then. Also, I think back then, it was thought that women learning a lot would cause damage to their delicate little brains. And royalty often had as many as sixteen children to presumably marry them off to their cousins for political reasons and to produce heirs. (Most European royalty married first or second cousins-this was something I learned while tracking down family trees as a hobby.) **

**Take this stuff into context when reading this.**

* * *

 **Hiccup**

"You learned at least _four_ different languages?! And you're learning a _sixth!?_ " The idea of his own little girl accomplishing that was astounding. Not only did she not have a damaged brain, she seemed to be even smarter.

"Yeah. I actually like learning languages," Siren said. Her hair was open and tumbled in yellow curls to below her shoulders. Her hair had been so much longer when she ran away from Berk. Hiccup remembered it was way more messy than that. Now it looked well groomed.

Siren certainly did change a lot.

"So you've taken all of Drago's men and put them on to Meathead and Berk islands, and you meet with the chiefs to arrange new laws," Hiccup said, after a long a silence. It felt like many long silences had occurred between him and Siren, especially during these seven years.

"Yes," Siren said. "I want to get all of them integrated into Viking society, but I also don't want to make them angry over rules, so I talk with the chiefs to see what we can do."

Another long silence occurred.

"Siren," Hiccup said, his voice low, "was I bad father to you? Is that why you left?"

Siren looked down for a few moments. Then she looked up, water welling up in her eyes.

"In many ways, yes. But at the same time, I feel so bad for leaving you. I know would never have become so experienced had I stayed, but I wouldn't have put you through so much guilt either.

"I'm so sorry," Siren cried as she looked down. Hiccup reached out and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Both of us did bad things, and now we both need to amend for it," he said, wiping away her tears. Truth was, he himself was trying to keep himself from crying, but the tears filled his eyes anyway.

And they didn't stop for a long time.

* * *

 **Siren**

"Dad told me you had married at age twenty, which is only three years older than I am now," I said, taking some rice up in my chopsticks while Mom struggled to keep a small amount between them.

"I know," I said. "I found chopsticks hard at first." I don't know how I can describe talking to a mother I hadn't seen in nearly twelve years.

"It takes practice, I suppose," Mom said with a rueful smile.

My mother didn't look so different from when she left me, except she now had streaks of gray through her hair and dark circles. I could see my disappearance took an effect on her as well.

"Mom," I said, feeling rather awkward asking her this, "should I get married at age twenty? Would that be a good idea?"

"It depends, Siren," Mom said, answering much more quickly than I thought. "Some women can't handle being bound, some are in love with the idea of marrying, not the actual person, while others actually love their partners. If you're going to do that, think very carefully about it. Okay?"

I nodded. "Sure. Another thing: How many children should I have? I was wondering once if it was possible to get the entire archipelago under the rule of one leader as a whole, and would it be possible by having many children and marrying them off to the chiefs-"

"I don't know, Siren. It could happen, but then you'd have to marry them to their cousins at one point to get to one sole descendant. How realistic do you think that is?"

Mom had a good point. It would be difficult at best, if not impossible.

"Who would you marry?" Mom asked.

"Probably Al, though I'm still getting to know him better," I said, taking up more chopsticks full of rice.

"When?"

"Maybe at twenty. I don't know."

Mom didn't say anything.

* * *

"I felt this huge disconnect with my Mom," I said to Al, as we both sat on the beach in our Viking garb.

"I can imagine. My entire life, I felt this disconnect with my dad," Al said. "He always thought I was worthless, and found no point in even trying to help me become a good chief. Now I've kind of gained experience ever since the war started, and now it's ended and Dad hasn't come back, so I'm basically chief now. I sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing, and other times I wish someone could take care of the kids' bullshit for me."

"I know that feeling so well," I said softly. "I've lost track over how many times I've had to deal with bullshit, both from the kids and from the people. In a way, being a princess is no different than being a teacher."

"I see. But you have your parents to deal with this stuff, so you don't have to deal with it for a while. You're kind of lucky in that sense," Al said.

He was right. My dad was a king, so he could deal with all that crap the people were throwing at him while I could do other stuff. But eventually, it'd be my turn.

"Your dad told me he's gonna take you home and let you visit on Saturdays," Al spoke, after a very long silence.

"I'm not surprised," I said. "I knew he was going to do that, and I'm not going to question it. I've hurt him way too long, so I'm going home. I'll visit on Saturdays, though." I looked up at Al. His face was expressionless.

"Do me a favour," he said, taking my hand in his hands, "and marry me in four years' time."

I nodded. "I'll do it."

I have absolutely no regrets. Neither does Al.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hiccup**

"Been a while, eh bud?" Hiccup whispered, pulling some squash out for his old friend. Toothless was a lot happier to see him again then he had expected. Toothless should've tried to blast him with plasma, but no, he chose to purr against his body.

Toothless smiled ruefully (can a dragon do that?) and swallowed the squash whole and licked his lips, his teeth sinking back in. Hiccup could tell his daughter had treated him just as well as she did with her people...which was surprisingly good. Hiccup knew if it was him running a kingdom at her age, he wouldn't have done as well as she did. Yes, she made mistakes, but she was young, and all youngsters make mistakes. Siren was slow with laws, but given the system she took on meant having everyone agree, and it would take everyone a long time to agree.

Still rather impressive though.

"Wanna go for a ride?" Hiccup asked, ready to mount. Toothless lowered himself to let his friend get on, and they ascended into the air.

* * *

 **Astrid**

One of the Quetzalcoatls- what was her name, Annette?-dropped a book in front of Astrid, then flipped open the book. Inside was a foreign language, made of weird pictures and symbols.

"That's Japanese. Siren-sensei can speak it and read it. This is an entire Nordic book that's been translated to Japanese by Siren-sensei herself." Annette smiled happily at this.

Astrid flipped through the book. She knew Siren knew many tongues, but it still felt so surreal to know this was a Nordic book translated to Japanese.

How do you read this Siren? How?

* * *

 **Siren**

"Been a while, eh kid?!" Snotlout punched her shoulder as Siren was about to pull one of her swords out for sharpening.

"I guess," she said, frowning. Siren had been in the center of attention ever since she'd come back. Subblebuss and other children kept asking her to teach them new tongues, and Siren decided on Gaelic, knowing it was the most practical to learn because there was no Japanese, Korean, Mayan or French Celts here. She was still learning to speak it herself, but she learned a decent amount fairly quickly, so she wasn't too worried about not having enough to teach.

"Yeah, I guess," Siren said, putting her sword back in its sheath. She grew used to having people punch her shoulders and tell her it was a while since they saw her. Nobody had apologized to her yet for refusing to let her back on Berk.

"I hear you've been to strange lands far away," Snotlout said, leaning closer. "Tell me more about them."

Siren sighed. No matter how many people she told about the past seven years, there were still more people who asked.


	25. FYI

**The latest story is Siren and Al.**


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